There’s no denying that the US supreme court’s long-awaited ruling that overturned Donald Trump’s global tariffs is important, and if the ruling turns out to be a harbinger that the court is ready to abandon its startling sycophancy toward the US president, it could prove hugely important. The ruling this Friday is the first time during Trump’s second term that the justices have struck down one of his policies. Not only that, the policy they struck down is Trump’s signature economic policy – he has used tariffs to bash, lord over and terrorize dozens of other countries and make himself the King of the Economic Jungle.

In the court’s main opinion, joined by three conservative justices and three liberals, chief justice John Roberts used some sharp language to slap down Trump’s tariffs, writing that the constitution specifically gives Congress, not the president, the power to impose taxes and tariffs. (Roberts noted that tariffs are indeed taxes.)

Roberts added that Trump had misinterpreted the law he invoked to impose tariffs against more than 80 countries, noting that the law – the International Emergency Emergency Powers Act – doesn’t mention the word tariffs even once as it lays out numerous ways presidents can regulate imports. Roberts added that if Congress had wanted to give presidents the power to impose tariffs under that law, it would have specifically said so.

In the tariffs case, Learning Resources Inc v Trump, Roberts seemed appalled at the extraordinary powers Trump had seized to impose whatever tariffs he wanted at any amount he wanted against any country he wanted. Roberts wrote that........

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